11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Maine. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Misogyny
  • Slut shaming
  • Racism
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Disfigurmisia
  • Terminal cancer
  • Hospital
  • Emesis
  • Blood depiction
  • Graphic physical injuries & illness
  • Death of a child
  • Murder
  • Gun violence
  • Knife violence
  • Car accident
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Becoming by Michelle Obama

Becoming by Michelle Obama

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Terminal cancer
  • Death of a parent
  • Death of a friend
  • Gun violence & mass shootings discussed
  • War themes mentioned
  • Poverty themes
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The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn

The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn

A young woman is making a living, faking it as a cut-price psychic working at Spiritual Palms (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). But then she meets Susan Burke. Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor, built in 1893. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home and taking possession of the stepson. She has even found trickles of blood on the wall. The young woman doesn’t believe in exorcism or the supernatural, but she does see an opportunity to make a lot of money. However, when she enters the house for the first time and meets Miles, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time….

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Emotional abuse
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Death from childbirth mentioned
  • Graphic emesis
  • Dead bodies
  • Cancer
  • Death of a father
  • Murder
  • Animal abuse mentioned
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My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged… until now.

Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism & ableist language (r slur)
  • Alcohol abuse mentioned
  • Medical treatment & procedures, including surgery & organ transplants
  • Blood depiction
  • Cancer (theme)
  • Death of a child
  • Death of a sister
  • Fire
  • Car accident
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Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam

Trixie Nguyen is determined to make her sex toy business a success, proving to her traditional Vietnamese parents that she can succeed in a nontraditional career. She’s made a fresh start in Washington DC, and her first pop-up event is going well—until she runs into the ex who dumped her. With a Post-it note.

The last person Andre Walker expected to see in his soul food restaurant was the woman he left behind in New Orleans. Their chemistry is still scorching, but he’s desperately trying to save his family restaurant from gentrifying developers. The solution? Partnering with his ex to turn Mama Hazel’s into a vibrator pop-up shop for hungry and horny clients.

Thanks to their steamy truce, both businesses start to sizzle and their red-hot desire soon reignites deeper feelings. But when Trixie receives an incredible career opportunity, will pride ruin their second chance at happiness?

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Grief & depiction
  • Death of a mother from cancer mentioned
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Below Zero by Dan Smith

Below Zero by Dan Smith

Twelve-year-old Zak, who has an inoperable brain tumour, is with his sister and parents when their private plane is disastrously diverted. Wrecked on a remote research outpost in the Antarctic, they find themselves in an abandoned base. Then Zak’s parents disappear, and the base’s equipment starts 3D-printing nightmarish spiderlike creatures. Zak’s bizarre visions appear to suggest a link to something else – beneath the ice – which only he can understand…

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cancer (brain tumour)
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Plane crash
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Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Aspiring choreographer Sophie Orenstein would do anything for Peter Rosenthal-Porter, who’s been on the kidney transplant list as long as she’s known him. Peter, a gifted pianist, is everything to Sophie: best friend, musical collaborator, secret crush. When she learns she’s a match, donating a kidney is an easy, obvious choice. She can’t help wondering if after the transplant, he’ll love her back the way she’s always wanted.

But Peter’s life post-transplant isn’t what either of them expected. Though he once had feelings for Sophie, too, he’s now drawn to Chase, the guitarist in a band that happens to be looking for a keyboardist… Read more.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Antisemitism
  • Pregnancy
  • Surgery (organ transplant)
  • Chronic pain
  • Death of a parent to cancer discussed
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Thanks a Lot Universe by Chad Lucas

Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas

Brian has always been anxious, whether at home, or in class, or on the basketball court. His dad tries to get him to stand up for himself and his mom helps as much as she can, but after he and his brother are placed in foster care, Brian starts having panic attacks. And he doesn’t know if things will ever be “normal” again . . .

Ezra’s always been popular. He’s friends with most of the kids on his basketball team—even Brian, who usually keeps to himself. But now, some of his friends have been acting differently, and Brian seems to be pulling away. Ezra wants to help, but he worries if he’s too nice to Brian, his friends will realize that he has a crush on him . . .

But when Brian and his brother run away, Ezra has no choice but to take the leap and reach out.

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Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Attempted suicide by overdose
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Panic attacks
  • Hospitalisation
  • Incarceration of a parent
  • Death of a parent from cancer mentioned
  • Bullying
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My Heart Goes Bang by Keris Stainton

My Heart Goes Bang by Keris Stainton

Ella, Lou, Issey, Liane and Paige are determined to make the most of this second year at uni. They want to have fun, but they want to focus on work. There’s no time for relationships. Except with each other. And even that’s not guaranteed. Gemma and Lou have always been close, but there’s tension between Issey and Liane, and none of them even knows Paige all that well.

But when Ella finds a magazine article with a list of men they should date before they’re 21 (someone who’s been on telly? Check; someone who’s got tattoos? Check;) they vow to complete the list before finishing university and set about it with a lot more enthusiasm than they do their studies … but will any of them end up with a full house? And when a secret from their first year comes out, it looks as if some of them might not be completing university, never mind the list …

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableism
  • Fatphobia & body shaming
  • Misogyny
  • Slut-shaming
  • Lesbomisia
  • Sexual harassment
  • Revenge porn
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Cancer
  • Asthma attack
  • Stalking
  • Blackmail
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The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, seventeen-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.

Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Coming out themes recounted
  • Cheating recounted
  • Anxiety & anxiety attacks
  • Depression
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Terminal cancer recounted
  • Grief & loss deception
  • Death of aunt & sister mentioned
  • Plane crash
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